Just got this from the Irish Technology Leadership Group who are visiting Belfast next month. Four NI Tech companies on the short list. Congratulations to them.

Campbell, California, September 24, 2009 – Twelve high-potential technology companies from across Ireland, north and south, have been shortlisted to attend a series of workshops in Belfast on October 20-21 designed to help them realize their potential in the global marketplace. The California-based Irish Technology Leadership Group (ITLG) will bring the dozen Irish companies face to face with a delegation of technology CEOs and venture capitalists from Silicon Valley for an intensive review of each company and its business plan. The event will be held at Belfast City Hall and at two of Ireland’s leading universities, Queen’s University and University of Ulster.

The visiting Californian delegation will also meet with Northern Ireland’s First Minister, Peter Robinson MP MLA, and deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness MP MLA, at a reception in Parliament Buildings at Stormont, Belfast, on the evening of October 21.

More than 80 companies submitted initial summary applications, followed by comprehensive business plans, to the ITLG selection team over the summer months. In making the selection of the final 12, the ITLG looked for companies that have developed products or services with a compelling value proposition and global market potential.

This is the second year the ITLG has organized “Silicon Valley Comes to Ireland” workshops for Irish companies. In November 2008, the Group arranged a similar series of workshops at Trinity College, Dublin which culminated in the selection of seven finalists to attend the ITLG/Irish Times Innovation Awards at Stanford University in Silicon Valley in April 2009. The overall award winner, Limerick-based Powervation, went on to raise an additional $10 million in venture capital.

“The ITLG team and the delegation of CEOs and VCs are looking forward to meeting Ireland’s best and brightest innovators in Belfast next month.” said John Gilmore, CEO of Sling Media and Executive Director of the ITLG. “This is a great opportunity for startup companies in Ireland to get exposure on the international stage, and we are delighted to be able to facilitate that,” he added.

The twelve companies short listed for the workshops are:

decaWave (Dublin) is a a fabless semiconductor company which produces a family of standards-compliant, low cost, low power wireless transceivers based on ultrawideband techniques that support highly accurate ranging and high speed communications.

B-Secur (Belfast) is pioneering a wrist-worn tracking device that uses an individual’s unique biometric signals and GPS technology to make it possible to identify not only where a person is but also who the person is.

NTERA(Blackrock, Co. Dublin & Philadelphia, USA) is a developer and supplier of advanced printable electrochromic nanomaterials and systems, enabling low power display and color change features on flexible substrates.

MUZU.TV (Dublin) is an online music video destination site and distribution platform, with the largest legal music video catalogue in the UK and Ireland that is generating a new source of income for the music industry through its global advertising network.

Vertical Wind Energy (Belfast) has developed a vertical axis wind turbine rated at 3kW which is currently being sold into the UK and Irish markets both to commercial customers and consumers.

Dial2Do(Dublin)lets phone users get things done while driving. Drivers can send emails, text messages, reminders and more, hands-free by just dialing a number and speaking.

Locle (Blackrock, Dublin) has developed a range of mobile and web applications that let people find their friends on a map using their mobile phone. The service is integrated with a number of social networks and lets users receive notifications about people and places that are within proximity.

Redmere (Balbriggan, Co. Dublin) is developing chip and cable technologies that enable a new product class of compact active cables for consumer, computing and enterprise applications.

SiSaf (Belfast) is a drug delivery company committed to growth through application of its innovative proprietary technology, Si-SafeT, to a wide range of dermatological products.

Kinometrics (Co. Wicklow) has developed SureWash to reduce the spread of infections, such as MRSA, in hospitals using patented camera technology. SureWash allows healthcare workers to check the quality of their hand wash and records their compliance against the WHO hand hygiene standards.

Sentry Wireless (Dublin) is developing a firewall for SIM cards that can be applied to SMS spam control, child safety, corporate expenditure control and controlling and classifying mobile payments by NFC- (near field communication) enabled credit/debit cards.

Kainos (Belfast) is the largest indigenous high-tech company in Northern Ireland that is developing a nearshore ICT campaign to attract innovative FDI business.